Union resists plan to re-register teachers
A plan for teachers to re-register with the South African Council for Educators has run into union opposition, with claims it would tamper with conditions of service, the organisation has told parliament.
A plan for teachers to reregister with the SA Council for Educators (SACE) has run into union opposition, with claims it would tamper with conditions of service, the organisation told parliament on Tuesday.
The SACE currently registers teachers on a once-off basis, effectively giving them a certificate for life.
This means teachers who are struck off the register for misconduct maintain their certificates, which robs the council of a means to ensure teachers maintain their professional development. It also limits the value of its database as a planning tool, as it contains teachers who are no longer teaching.
The SACE wants to introduce a system that requires teachers to reregister every three years, linked to a requirement that they earn at least 150 ‘‘continuing professional teacher development’’ points during this period.
The council is proposing that teachers get a one-year grace period, after which they will be suspended, said the SACE’s CE, Ella Mokgalane.
“It will be easy to certify the newly qualified. The challenge is with the bulk who see a bit of a threat,” she told parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education. “The unions are saying, ‘You are tampering with our conditions of service.’ With more consultation, we will be able to bring them on board.”
Mokgalane made it clear the SACE could not implement teacher reregistration without the buy-in of unions.
“We need to be sure we don’t destabilise the system. Until we agree within the profession on the issue of recertification, we won’t move. Out of the consultation sessions we had, we are beginning to slowly settle some of the sticky issues,” she told MPs. The SACE’s target date for implementation is 2020.
From 2019, the SACE will require police clearance to register newly qualified teachers, she said. “But we still need to settle what to do with teachers in the system. Our target date for that is 2020.”
Mokgalane said the council had identified 98 stakeholder groups, half of which had already been consulted.
MPs also heard from the department of basic education’s Gerrit Coetzee, who briefed them on the Funza Lushaka teaching bursary scheme.
He said the scheme had seen a surge in applicants since former president Jacob Zuma’s announcement of free higher education in 2017, which took effect in January.
The scheme’s capacity to select the right aspirant teachers was evident in its throughput rate, Coetzee said. Analysis of the scheme between 2007 and 2012 found 81% of the students completed a four-year education degree in four years. “It means our criteria for selection is contributing to a better calibre of student at university.”